Judge-Hosted Settlement Conference: In this court-based ADR process, the settlement judge (or magistrate) presides over a meeting of the parties in an effort to help them reach a settlement. Judges have played a variety of roles in such conferences, articulating opinions about the merits of the case, facilitating the trading of settlement offers, and sometimes acting as a mediator.

Examples: USA—This is the most common form of ADR used in US federal and state courts; Japan-judge as neutral may implement three ADR procedures (Jardine 1996).